


Eulogium

by Starshe11



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Four Weddings and a Funeral References, Gen, Guardians of the Galaxy References, The Fault in Our Stars references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 11:48:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14135445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starshe11/pseuds/Starshe11
Summary: “All things considered, I had a pretty damn good family…” | Set in a Chapter 14 AU





	Eulogium

“Hasn’t changed much, has it?” Noctis asked. “Everything’s still where I left it.”

The four of them were currently in his old room in the Citadel, taking a bit of a break before going to the throne room to confront Ardyn. Fighting through a city’s worth of daemons and the Infernian was no easy task.

Each member of the group was spread out across the room, all with their own respective space: Gladiolus by the door (in case Ardyn tried to launch a sneak attack), Prompto by the window trying to take pictures of the Citadel, Ignis seated on one of the black sofas in the middle of the room, and Noctis sprawled out on his old bed.

 

“Nah,” Gladiolus replied. “The King pretty much told everyone not to try and touch your stuff. Hell, he even had me and Iggy check on it at least once a week to make sure nothing had changed.”

“Seriously?” Noctis chuckled. “A little much, don’t you think?”

“Well,” Ignis cut in, facing your general direction. “His Majesty wanted to make sure that, in the event that you would return to the Citadel, everything would be just as if you had never even left.”

“Down to the dirty clothes though?” Prompto scrunched up his nose in mock disgust, holding up a faded black t-shirt that looked like it had seen better days. Turning to Noctis, he joked, “Seriously, dude. Which one of us was living alone again?”

 

They all let out a hearty series of laughs, exhaustion temporarily forgotten. For a moment, the party of four imagined that they were all just hanging out in Noctis’ room on a normal day…

Not on their way to send Noctis to his death.

 

Somehow, all present seemed to remember that little fact and the laughter immediately died down. All that hung in the air now was a heavy silence loaded with grief.

No one spoke, nor did anyone move a muscle. Collectively, everyone wanted to just make time stop, suddenly have Bahamut or any other Astral tell you all that there was another way to save your King…Hell, even wishing that Ardyn would just give up and off himself.

Anything to keep them all together.

 

Noctis suddenly stood up from his place on the bed, Gladiolus and Prompto watching as he went to stand in front of the television. For a moment, they wondered what he was doing before the realization sank in.

“Noct?” Ignis asked, a slight tremble to his voice as he turned to where he knew the King had stopped. “Is it time?”

“Yeah,” he replied, an uneasy smile on his face.

“Sure you wanna go through with this, buddy?” Prompto was shaking a little now, fists clenching and unclenching. “We don’t have to if you wanna back out.”

“Hey, he said he really wanted to do it,” Gladiolus said, giving the gunner a light pat on the back. “Besides, our hard work would’ve gone to waste if we didn’t go through with it. Right, Noct?”

“Y-yup,” he tried to put on a brave face for his brothers. Shooting a sad yet grateful look at his Shield, Noctis took a deep breath before speaking again.

 

“Okay, who wants to go first?”

 

———-XV————-

“I’ll start off this pre-funeral, if you guys don’t mind,” Gladiolus spoke up. Prompto and Ignis nodded in his direction, the Shield now making his way toward Noctis, who had made himself comfortable on the sofa beside Ignis to make it easier for the blind man later on.

“Alright, big guy,” the Chosen King replied. “What do you have for me?”

“A poem, actually,” Gladiolus sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “One I wrote myself.”

 

He rummaged in his pockets before pulling out a sheet of crumpled paper. Smoothing it out, he cleared his throat before he began to read.

 

“Stop all the clocks, cut off all the phones,

Prevent Umbra from barking with a juicy bone,

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum,

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

“Let airships circle, moaning overhead,

Scribbling on the sky the message ‘He is dead’,

Put crepe bows ‘round lamp posts on the streets that he loves,

Let the Hunters of Eos wear black cotton gloves.

“He was my North, my South, my East, my West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song,

I thought our brotherhood would last forever: I was wrong.”

 

Gladiolus paused to take a breath, his normally even voice cracking ever so slightly. When he had recovered enough, he continued with the last verse.

 

“The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun.

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.

For nothing now can ever come to any good.”

 

As the last word tumbled from his lips, Gladiolus excused himself from the room, muttering something about scouting the bathroom in case Ardyn showed up. When the door had closed behind him, Ignis spoke up.

“Might I have my turn next, Noct?” He asked quietly, his voice trembling.

“O-of course, Specs,” Noctis coughed out, trying to hold in his tears. “As soon as Gladio gets back, alright?”

 

A nod, then total silence…

Save for the muffled sobs from the behind the bathroom door.

 

———-XV————-

When Gladiolus had returned from his ‘recon’, Ignis pulled out his own piece of paper from his pocket. This one was neatly folded, the text in Braille.

“Alright, Ignis,” Noctis turned to address his adviser. “Let’s have it.”

The strategist cleared his throat before he spoke.

 

“Noctis Lucis Caelum was a selfish, lazy prince who hated vegetables, loved to sleep in, and generally give his ever-loyal companions some form of grief.”

Gladiolus and Prompto burst into laughter at the introduction, Noctis burying his head in his hands.

 

“Igniiiiiis,” the black-haired man whined. “Really? You’re gonna call me out now?”

“Better late than never, Highness,” Ignis smirked. “You asked me to write down what I wanted to say, did you not?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Noctis groaned, lips twitching into a smile. “Anyway, are you just going to diss on me the entire eulogy or what?”

“I was just getting to that,” Ignis replied. “Unless you don’t want me to continue?”

 

“Keep going, Iggy,” Gladiolus snorted. “I wanna hear the rest of it.”

“Hear, hear!” Prompto cackled, clutching his side from laughing too much. 

“Aaaand, that’s enough from the peanut gallery,” Noctis chuckled. “Seriously though. Go ahead, Specs.”

“Very well,” he cleared his throat once more, allowing the energy in the room to die down a little before resuming his eulogy.

 

“In spite of all this, we forgive him and continue to remain by his side. We do so not because he is royalty, and we are sworn to protect him at the cost of our own lives. Neither is it because he is the one chosen by the Astrals to purge the world of the Starscourge, or because he had thirty-odd years when he should have gotten more.”

“Just thirty, Specs,” Noctis teased.

“Time is a strange thing in this new world, Noct,” Ignis replied. “Calendars and such were done away with for the most part. This was written assuming your birthday may have already passed.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Noctis shrugged. “Just get on with it, Specky.”

“Of course,” Ignis continued.

 

“Noct’s patience was quite short as well, so much so that he would keep interrupting you at his own funeral just to tell you to hurry up.” This elicited a snort from Gladiolus and Prompto.

“He was also quite moody. Astrals above, he couldn’t even breathe without complaining about something that was bothering him. Plus, he was quite silly. I do not believe I have ever met someone with as much…sharpness as Noct has ‘erryday’.” He adopted a lightly teasing tone, his charge’s catchphrase strange on his tongue. The other two members of their group were once again howling with laughter, with their guest of honor muttering curses under his breath.

When everyone had calmed down enough, Ignis spoke once more, his tone grave.

 

“I shall say this, however, of my beloved charge and brother. If the day comes where technology has advanced enough that they may be able to replace my eyes, I will politely tell them to shove off…” He trailed off, swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat.

“For I would rather spend just one more night with him as I am than to spend a lifetime of seeing without him.”

 

When Ignis had finished, the room was draped in heavy silence once more, only broken by Noctis’ shuffling to hug his beloved adviser.

 

———-XV————- 

“I guess…it’s my turn now, huh?” Prompto timidly asked once he could find his voice again. What Ignis and Gladiolus had written…they caused the blond to nearly break down right then and there.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Noctis grinned at his best friend. “Let’s hear what you’ve got.”

“Alright..I can do this,” the gunner muttered to himself, taking a few deep breaths before grabbing the creased paper in his pocket and addressing the black-haired man.

 

“So…how’s it going?” Prompto began. “My name is Prompto Argentum, and Noctis Lucis Caelum was pretty much my best friend for life. The story of our friendship is an epic one…one which I probably wouldn’t be able to describe in more than one sentence before I turn into a crying mess.” He chuckled sadly at this, noting the encouraging stares (and presence, from Ignis) of his brothers.

“Like all stories of friendship, ours will die with us, as it should,” Prompto continued, feeling the lump in his throat threaten to resurface. He tried to play it off with a nervous laugh as he read the rest of his eulogy. “You know, back then, I was hoping I’d stay friends with him long enough for him to be doing this for me since there’s really no one else…um…”

 

The blond paused for a minute to compose himself, tears threatening to spill out at any given second. He flinched slightly when he felt a familiar hand on his shoulder, looking up to see Noctis.

“You wanna continue, Prompto?” He asked, smiling sadly. “I don’t blame you if you wanna stop…”

“No,” the gunner replied immediately, shaking his head. “I wrote this especially for you, buddy. I’ll be damned if you don’t get to hear it all.”

“Alright then,” the Chosen King chuckled. “Have it your way.”

“Damn right I will,” Prompto joked back. Gladiolus and Ignis both sent him a small smile, proud of how much their youngest member has grown over the past decade.

 

“Anyway…Like I said, since I can’t talk about our friendship without me being admitted to the nearest psych ward, I’m gonna talk about something I hate: math.” This elicited chuckles from his three companions, causing a smile to appear on his own lips before continuing.

“I’ve never been good at math, but I’m sure of this: There are infinite numbers between zero and one. Point one, point two, and so on…like I said, infinite. Of course, there are bigger sets of infinite numbers between…let’s say…zero and a million. Some infinities are bigger than others…a certain asshole taught us that lesson.”

“Y’know, there’d be days when I honestly resented the size of the set I’d been given. They just seemed too much, especially during the darkest times in my life. But now?” Prompto paused and bit his lip, a pained expression on his face. “Now, I just want more numbers than I know I’m gonna get. Astrals, I want the same thing for Noct too, more than anything.”

 

“Noct, buddy,” Prompto looked directly at his best friend now, tears flowing seemingly endlessly. “I just wanna say thanks for the infinity you gave me, even if I was nothing special…even after finding out the truth about me. I wouldn’t trade the forever we had for anything in the world.”

 

———-XV————- 

“So…should we get moving?” Gladiolus addressed the group once tears had been shed.

“Let’s,” Ignis replied quietly, adjusting his Kingsglaive coat as he stood. “Let’s not keep the Chancellor waiting any longer.”

 

“Wait,” Noctis said as he put a hand on the blind man’s shoulder, causing the other two to look in his direction as well.

 

“What’s up, dude?” Prompto tried to sound cheerful. “Not getting cold feet are you?”

“No, but…” Noctis trailed off, suddenly finding the carpet to be quite interesting.

“How many times do I have to remind you?” Gladiolus said jokingly. “Just spit it out already, Noct.”

The Chosen King let out a sigh as he pulled a piece of paper out of his coat pocket and presented it to the group, a small gasp escaping from Prompto’s lips.

 

“What is going on?” Ignis asked, hearing the blond’s exclamation of surprise.

“Oh, my bad,” the gunner turned to him sheepishly. “Noct wrote out something too.”

“Well, it would be a waste if we didn’t hear him out, wouldn’t it?” Ignis sent a small smile in his liege’s direction.

“Damn right,” Gladiolus chuckled sadly. “Besides, His Highness will get sulky if we don’t.”

“Good that you know that, big guy,” Noctis smirked at his Shield before unfolding the paper and reading his own eulogy for them.

 

“Iggy and Gladio know that, when I was a kid, I pretended to be a normal guy: someone with a mother who took great care of the family, a father who was around all the time and did whatever normal fathers and sons did with me, and maybe a brother or sister with whom I could goof around with and be myself around.”

“It never really struck me until ten years ago,” Noctis chuckled sadly, taking a good look at his companions before continuing. “But it turns out that I ended up making my dreams come true after all.”

 

He paused to turn and directly address his adviser. “Ignis may not be someone who sings me lullabies or tucks me in at night, but he does make sure that our asses aren’t cooked and used in one of his ‘recipehs’ at the end of the day.”

“Happy to oblige,” Ignis sent him a sad smile.

 

Noctis then faced his Shield and looked him directly in the eye. “Gladio wasn’t a guy who could give me advice or play a game of catch with me without wanting to embarrass me first, but he always made it a point to keep my head on straight and light a fire under my sorry ass whenever I needed it.”

“Well, someone’s gotta do it,” Gladiolus replied, his voice cracking.

 

Finally, he looked at his best friend and sent him a small smile. “Prompto…he was all that I could ask for and more in a brother. The trips to the arcade, the way he’d keep all of our spirits up on the road…Definitely the best sibling a guy could have.”

The blond tried to reply with a witty remark of his own, only for a few choked sobs to come out.

 

“All things considered, I had a pretty damn good family…”

 

This was all Noctis could get out before he broke down, hot tears hitting the plush carpet. He suddenly felt warmth surrounding him as his family pulled him in for a hug, the four holding each other in silence.


End file.
